After playing a wind instrument, such as a flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bassoon or the like, proper care requires that the inside walls be swabbed to remove the moisture which has condensed from the instrumentalists breath. While the usual cotton swab can perform reasonably in drying the inside walls of the instrument, it is practically impossible to remove any moisture from the valve pads by such a procedure. Valve pads are generally made from leather, felt, gut, or cork and failure to remove excess moisture causes them to swell, warp, or crack. Leaking problems develop; the tone is distorted, and the pads must be replaced. Although hundreds of thousands of musicians have played wind instruments for several hundred years, not one of them has presented a device such as the one described in this application to solve the problem of sticking valves and pad problems caused by a failure to remove the excess moisture from the pads.